1943 Batman COSTUMES





BATMAN
Difficult as it is to translate a 2D drawing into live action, the costumers for Columbia did an admirable job in creating suits that looked much like the characters appearing in the comics at the time.

Lewis Wilson is often discounted as being portly and that's false-- an athlete and a swimmer at the time he carried his weight well.  The belt positioning occasionally rode up giving his mid section the appearance of girth.   It didn't help that his stuntman had a few extra pounds on him.

The Belt Rides High
The Devil's Horns of the cowl as they are often called do match the drawings of the period and offered a solution to keep them visible from all angles.


The chest emblem shows delicate craftsmanship and the utility belt, which wasn't used at all in the serial is a very good representation of what it looked like in the comics.  To be fair, in the comics of the period Batman only used his belt occasionally and it wasn't the problem solver it would become in the 1966 TV series.


ROBIN
Doug Croft's Robin costume is equally successful with the exception of the cheap dime store Halloween mask.  Care was made to match the look of the belt buckle and the Robin Hood flair of his boots.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WELCOME TO BATMAN SERIALS!

Image
Columbia Pictures, home to The Three Stooges for many years, produced TWO Batman Movie Serials in the 1940s.  The first, called simply THE BATMAN was released in 1943.  The second, NEW ADVENTURES OF BATMAN AND ROBIN was released in 1949. These serials mark the first screen appearances of Batman, the first screen appearance of a DC Comics character (at the time known as National Comics.  ADV OF CAPTAIN MARVEL predates these but at the time he was a Fawcett Comics Character).   The serials also introduced a skinny version of Alfred that caused the comics to follow suit, and it was in the serials that we first encounter the Batcave.  This site will cover all aspects of the two serials, as well as merchandise from the period and we'll even sample some of the comics that would have been on the stands when these were released. In 1965 Columbia repackaged the first Batman serial as AN EVENING WITH BATMAN AND ROBIN and it played art houses and college campuses to sold out audience
Read more